Week off...

... week on more like! I've taken five days annual leave this week and I'm not back to work until wednesday. It's been good but I've not really had much chance to sit still - it's just as well I probably couldn't due to the amount of coffee I've consumed over the last few days! At least I've managed to have some sort of lie in most days (it's physically impossible for me to sleep past 8.30) but it's made such a difference not having to rush around to get to work.

I managed to find the time to sort out my old receipts, pay slips and bank statements - I hadn't touched them for nearly nine years so I was brutal and chucked out everything I didn't need -there's going to be one huge fire when I get round to burning it all! Not only did I have a clear out, I also ORGANISED everything! Now if I want something I know exactly where it is - no more sorting through drawers and shoe boxes, I even dug out some ring binders and filed things!

On the down side it I've spent too much this holiday, the priciest thing being a huge wardrobe (hence the clearout) which my dad helped me put together on saturday (it was too heavy to do myself) but I payed him back in rabbit poo which he loves me to save for his garden so he's happy, lol. Ooh, and I bought my first ever tool - some wire cutters! I've never had (or needed) a tool before. Obviously there was a reason for this, with the help of my younger sis I've built two panels of a rabbit run from scratch.

Here's Liz modeling one:

So that's been my exciting week, lol and now I'm slightly bored, I can't wait til wednesday!

p.s has anyone else ever noticed there's always a guy wearing a hi-vis jacket whilst shopping in supermarkets, I swear I can guarantee seeing one in the fruit and veg section, lol.

Highs and Lows, Ups and Downs

The last two weeks have been crazy, I've been rushed of my feet both at home and at work and for a day or two it got to the point I couldn't sit still for more than two minutes, in fact, if I tried I got really twitchy and had to be doing something constantly - Bailey's never had so many walks!

Last week my colleague was on holiday so I was covering shifts for her, working six days and was sole in charge and not just of the cattery - I was running the Branch! My boss has been seriously ill and has been in hospital for nearly a month now and the Saturday before last she suffered a heart attack. Since then she's improved but has contracted MRSA. Until then we never really knew how much she did for the Branch, she's getting on a bit and liked to do everything from home so the shit hit the fan the moment she was out of action. Luckily with the help of the committee members and volunteers I managed to keep it going, whilst dealing with the 'she's out of the way, lets change things' people (they wanted to send some of our cats away which my colleague and I have really worked hard with to make them homeable).

If having to deal with all that wasn't enough some of the cats decided to get ill and one of my favourite cats, Danni, died literally minutes after our vet gave him the ok to go home. He'd had diabetes for years and was rehomed a year ago with his sister, Mandi. Because of his health problem I was cat sitting when his owners were away and they'd only just gotten back from Holland. I mentioned that Danni seemed a bit quiet and should probably visit the vet so they took him the next day and he kept him in on a drip overnight. The morning he died the vet said his was well enough to go home but less than a minute after walking out the carrier he collapsed. His distraught owner was in such a state he didn't know what to do so I had to go over, 'pronounce him' and take him for cremation. Danni was such a character and will be missed by so many people.

That's not even breaking the back of my problems but it's too depressing to go on so I'm now going to switch to the highlights. Work wise we managed to home loads of long-stay cats and it was all I could do to stop myself from jumping around as they went! I was that happy.

Back at home on my one day off last saturday I was dragged along to a dog show my sister's college was hosting. It was only when I got there my lovely sis told me she's entered me and Bailey into the Best Crossbreed Class which was judged by one of the trainers of that TV show where 'celebs' trained dogs, I think it's called Underdog. Needless to say we didn't win anything but Bailey did come first in the agility competition. Here's me and the ugly mug being judged:







BTW the guy sitting down in the last pic has a ferret up his tshirt! It just seemed so random I have to point it out, lol.

So that's been my mad few weeks, now I've got a week off work and I'm slowly catching up with everything. I really miss the days when I used to come online everynight.

Bunny Update

I've had my new bunnies for two months now and they're getting big - they're four months old, I can't believe it!


In this picture, from left to right are Fern, Honey and Willow (Willow's never been very photogenic bless her) and they're getting on great together, so well in fact that they now live together 24/7! Before I had the separate and it was a mission and a half to clean them and put them in for the night, now it doesn't take two minutes (putting them away anyway).


I'm so happy with them all, they're really sweet natured, love a fuss and are so entertaining to watch. I gave them a football and they pass it among themselves - so cute!


The other day I caught myself considering another one, I couldn't, could I?...

Playing Tourist

One of the things I love doing in my spare time is going into London and playing tourist. It's almost like being in another country. I live about 30mins from town by train/tube so it doesn't take long to get there but usually something comes up and I never get round to going and it's been over a year since I last went there. So today I hopped on a train and was having a coffee in Covent Garden at 10.45, what's more with the exception of lunch/coffee everything I did was free! I visited Leicester Square, Picadilly, Trafalgur Square, saw 10 Downing St, Big Ben, The London Eye and Buckingham Palace. I also spent some time in The National Gallery, making a point to view Monet's Waterlily Pond and Van Gogh's Sunflowers. It was a nice day too so once there I walked everywhere enjoying the 'fresh' air. On the way home I stopped off at Kings Cross station (by accident, lol) and happened apon platform 9 and 3/4! I didn't even know it 'existed'!

So overall I had a good day. Everytime I go I promise myself I'll visit more often but I'm sure something will come up.

Holiday and Bollywood Comes To Town

I've not been around much lately as I went away for the first time in 3 years. I joined my sister down in Dorset in an old flat literally on the seafront - the sea came up the front path! So I'm now feeling very fat as my diet consisted of fish 'n chips, cream teas and Dorset apple cake.

We had great weather, the day before I got there there had been a snow blizzard but I must have taken the sun with me as I was able to wear just a t-shirt for a lot of the time - I wasn't brave enough to go for a swim though. What's more is we didn't have a tv so evenings were spent down the, arcades, then the pub and playing a game of Monopoly before bed, thank God for DTRs!

Since I got back on saturday I've not stopped, after a quick hello to the family and my menagerie I was out again to an Indian disco hosted by my vet who'd kindly invited me to celebrate the opening of his new surgery. Luckily it was just around the corner so I wasn't too late and I had a fun evening being entertained by a dodgy DJ (from Slough, which he had to say every 10 minutes), a badly dancing trainee vet and the best Indian food I've ever had. Unfortunately I'd had three glasses of wine before I realised most of the people there were T-total but hopefully I only embarrassed myself once when I danced to Saturday Night by Whigfield with only my tipsy friend and a receptionist trying to remember the moves. After 'changing lightbulbs' and 'sweeping floors' (the basic moves in Indian dancing) I excused myself and fell into bed as I had to be up for work the next day.

So today I've been catching up with a few chores around the house and slowly getting through my emails. No doubt I've probably missed a few antics on the sites I frequent.

Like I Need More Pets!

Anyone that knows me knows I like animals - I work for the RSPCA so I kinda have to, lol. Currently I have 5 cats including one 20 year old girly with only three legs, one dog that somehow ended up here and one rabbit who's sister died just over a month ago. I thought that was enough until my sister brought two baby bunnies home yesterday, supposedly to take to work with her (she's an animal technician at an agricultural college), so I had them in my room overnight and off she went with them this morning - only to come back at lunchtime saying her boss didn't want them! So today I spent an hour dragging out a very old, tiny hutch from the bottom of the garden, cleaning it up and making it home to the two bunnies. It's not ideal but it'll do for a while.

It's kind of up in the air about whether they're here to stay or not, rabbits are very sociable so they should get on with Willow ok (although there was a bit of a scrap earlier but i think it was just a dominance thing).

Here's one of them, her name's Honey and her sister's possibly Treacle.

Easter

It's Easter, the holiday with lots of chocolate! Unfortunately (or not) my taste for choccie treats has changed since I've gotten older but I guess that means they'll last longer. One of my work volunteers brought in a huge Easter cake yesterday, it was gorgeous but it filled me up for the day - I nearly had trouble eating the mini eggs and creme eggs later that afternoon!

On the subject of work, we were discussing Easter a couple of days ago ie what the meaning of it is and where the idea of eggs came from. My colleagues and I have concluded that on Shrove Tuesday Jesus ate a pancake before setting out into the desert for 40 days and 40 nights. When he returned he was hung (I'm ashamed to say this was my input) and buried but woke up a few days later and God knows what happened next. Sadly out of all of us I was the only one who went to church every sunday(note the very past tense), went to Brownies then Guides, was a member of the St John's Ambulance and went to a C of E primary school.

Back to today, my sister just handed me an easter egg, which was a huge surprise as a)we don't usually bother and b)I don't have any intentions of going out and getting her - or anyone else - anything. I think she wants something.